Out Foxed

Trump Defends Bill O’Reilly after Sexual Assault Allegations

Left, by Nicholas Kamm/AFP; Right, from RB/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images, both from Getty Images.

On Friday, President Donald Trump declared April to be National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. On Wednesday he defended Bill O’Reilly against repeated allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior, arguing that the Fox News host “shouldn’t have settled.”

Last weekend, The New York Times reported that O’Reilly, the top-rated host in cable news, and the network’s parent company had paid five women a combined $13 million in exchange for agreements to not pursue litigation or share their allegations of sexual harassment. O’Reilly denied wrongdoing, saying that he is “vulnerable to lawsuits” as a public person and that he agreed to settle them in order to avoid “negative publicity” in order to “spare [his] children.”

Trump was appalled, though not for the same reason that more than a dozen companies have pulled advertisements from O’Reilly’ prime time show. In an interview from the Oval Office with the Times, Trump said that O’Reilly is “a good person” and that he should not have settled with his accusers “because you should have taken it all the way. I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.”

The allegations against O’Reilly come more than eight months after former Fox News boss Roger Ailes resigned from the network after more than two dozen women came forward with sexual harassment allegations during an internal investigation launched by the company. At the time, Trump told NBC’s Chuck Todd that he felt “very badly” about the accusations being lodged against Ailes. “It's very sad. Because he's a very good person,” he said. “I've always found him to be just a very, very good person. And by the way, a very, very talented person. Look what he's done.” In September, 21st Century Fox settled with one of Ailes’s accusers, Gretchen Carlson, for $20 million and offered her a public apology. Ailes repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Soon after, Trump himself faced his own sexual assault allegations. After a decade-old Access Hollywood tape surfaced on which Trump was caught boasting about grabbing women by the genitals, a handful of women came forward with stories about how he had groped or kissed them against their will. Trump denied these accusations. “Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign, total fabrication,” Trump said in October. “The events never happened.” His denials prompted one of his accusers, former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos to sue Trump for defamation in a case that the president’s private lawyers are currently seeking to have dismissed.

On Friday, Trump said that his administration “will do everything in its power to protect women, children, and men from sexual violence,” adding that “we must develop meaningful strategies to eliminate these crimes, including increasing awareness of the problem in our communities, creating systems that protect vulnerable groups, and sharing successful prevention strategies.”